


The Great Unconquered Sun

by Annariel, lsellers (Annariel)



Category: Primeval
Genre: Afterlife, Bechel Test Pass, F/M, Female Antagonist, Female Protagonist, M/M, POV Female Character, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-29
Updated: 2010-12-29
Packaged: 2017-10-14 05:05:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/145682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annariel/pseuds/Annariel, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annariel/pseuds/lsellers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Claudia, Nick, Stephen and Ryan find themselves in a strange afterlife at Anomaly Junction.  Written for the prompt <i>We hang the lanterns to ward away the spirits</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Great Unconquered Sun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Quillori](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quillori/gifts).



> With thanks to Fredbassett (Livejournal) for beta-reading.

# The Great Unconquered Sun

 **Now:**

The hut was crude. From the outside it looked like little more than a pile of logs with mud packed into the gaps. They had lacked the skills to make something elegant, but it served its purpose. It kept out the rain and the snow and, most importantly, the icy wind that these days blew hard down the narrow valley.

Claudia latched the door shut and hefted her bundle. It didn't contain much. The anomalies at the junction hadn't opened anywhere particularly useful for some weeks. She had some inexpertly salted meat and some fruit Ryan had found on some prehistoric summer island. He had described the warm sandy beach and the fruit-laden trees, making them all yearn to be out of the cold and away somewhere else. She had also packed a small knife. It wasn't much, the first of their efforts at smelting. The blade was soft and pliable. Helen probably had better, but Claudia was including it more as a message than a gift. They were becoming self-sufficient. Helen needed to up her game.

The route to the natural ford across the stream was almost a path these days, worn smooth by their feet, leather buckets of water weighing them down.

Claudia met Helen by that ford, the day before every full moon. A rendezvous arranged by a chance remark, a harsh joke an embittered Nick had made at Helen's expense.

"You're like a werewolf, an animal disguised in human clothing, why should we meet with you?"

"I'm only a werewolf at the full moon. Come the day before!"

Claudia and Helen had never discussed it, but the next full moon Claudia had gone down to the ford and Helen had been there. Ever since then Claudia had gone back each full moon. Helen haunted the valley like a ghost or a spirit and Claudia needed to keep some kind of tab on her. Claudia brought goods. Helen brought snippets of information. They made an exchange and then they parted.

Claudia quite enjoyed the brief encounters. They made a change from the remoteness of their lives at the edge of the anomaly junction and she had the small pleasure of knowing these were the spoils of victory.

 **Earlier:**

Claudia Brown was walking through a forest. The trees were tall, casting deep shadows and leaving open spaces underneath where little could grow.

She was aware that she was wearing practical, warm clothing, virtually hiking gear. She felt the weight of a backpack on her shoulders and the smooth wood of a walking stick in one hand.

She paused and looked around herself, frowning.

She remembered standing in front of the anomaly, watching Nick and Helen Cutter disappearing into the past with their cargo of baby predators and then it was as if she had fallen into one of the strange waking dreams she had started having. Sparkling shards of anomaly light flickered across her vision and now... this...

She heard a faint screeching cry, possibly a bird of prey. The trees around her were conifers and, through them, she could just see flickering lights. Claudia headed onwards, hoping to find an anomaly and hoping that would jog her memory of how she came to this place.

When the trees opened up she gasped in surprise. A field of anomalies lay before her, receding into the distance.

"Claudia!"

Nick Cutter stumbled out of the forest a short distance away. He was dressed as she was in practical clothing and was also wearing a backpack. But he looked different, leaner somehow and his hair had grown.

"Nick! Claudia!" Stephen and Ryan appeared together.

Nick's jaw dropped. "But..."

"I'm dead, so Stephen told me," said Ryan laconically. "I feel remarkably fit for a dead man, though."

"No! I mean yes! But..." Nick ran his hands through his hair and looked around. "None of this makes sense."

 **Now:**

Claudia stopped by the ford. The stream was still running, but ice had formed at the edges and Claudia suspected it would freeze over before too long. She put her pack on the ground. Helen was nowhere to be seen, which surprised Claudia. Helen took a certain pride in her ability to make the rendezvous.

Claudia sat for a while on a rock, enjoying the sharp, pale sunlight that seemed so precious now the nights were drawing in. But after a while the chill wind started to penetrate through the thick red wool of the cape she was wearing. A cape that Ryan had looted from somewhere in the 16th century. It was incredibly warm, a rich woman's cloak, Nick had said, but it had its limits.

She stood up to leave but was arrested by the sight of a hooded figure in the trees. A human form, but with thick folds of material concealing its face.

"Helen?" Claudia asked.

The figure twitched and jerked. "Beware the dark. It comes in the dark and hates the light. Beware the dark."

The voice was unmistakably Helen's but the words were beyond strange. They were so completely unlike anything Helen might say that Claudia instinctively took a step towards her.

"Helen," she started and then stopped. You wouldn't ask Helen if she was all right. The very question would be insult.

"Talking nonsense? That's not like you, Helen?" Claudia went on the attack, taking another step towards the figure in the trees.

There was a hissing sound and Helen lunged forward, then retreated suddenly, back into the shade of the trees.

"Helen?" Claudia took a step closer.

"Keep away!" cried Helen. "Keep away and stay in the light!" Then she turned and ran into the forest.

Claudia was tempted to follow her but didn't. This was Helen. If she wanted help she would ask for it, or engineer a situation where it had to be given. Whatever was going on, Helen did not want her sympathy or assistance and probably needed neither.

Claudia shrugged, picked up her bundle once more and turned back towards the cabin. Pines and laurels grew in patches by the path. The area around anomaly junction contained a weird mixture of flora and fauna. It was time's melting pot. On a whim, Claudia used her knife to gather branches into a bundle. It wasn't the home-made knife she had taken to Helen but a tough blade that had arrived here with her.

Claudia wasn't sure what the date was, but they did know the solstice was near. By Nick's calculations it would happen tonight. The solstice was as near to Christmas as she was going to get and, in this strange pre-human valley, it seemed somehow more appropriate. The solstice had always been there whereas Christmas was a modern thing. The evergreens were her present version of the brightly coloured baubles of her youth and felt, somehow, more appropriate.

 **Earlier:**

"Hmm... looks like I've got four handguns, a first aid kit, some spare ammo and a torch." Ryan laid the equipment out in front of him.

Their backpacks all contained the same basic kit: a blanket, a spare set of clothes, some energy bars and a stout knife. It was the extras that were interesting.

Stephen pouted. "All I've got is some handcuffs, a rope and a set of cable ties. How come you get useful stuff?"

A very strange expression crossed Ryan's face. "I'll do you a deal. I'll swap a handgun and half the ammo."

Stephen smirked. "For the cable ties or the cuffs?"

Ryan waggled his eyebrows. "We can discuss it later."

"Thermos flask, kettle, trangia, a chopping board and..." Nick frowned at a book, " _Wilderness Survival Cookery_. Someone seems to be under the impression I can cook."

Stephen laughed. "Someone has a sense of humour, anyway. Ooh!" He produced a book from his own backpack. " _50 Great Homebrew Recipes_!"

"Now that I'll definitely swap for a handgun," said Ryan.

"What have you got, Claudia?" asked Nick, moving close.

" _Little House on the Prairie_." Claudia dumped the book on the ground. "A small hatchet or axe thing?" She frowned at the implement.

"Could be useful," said Ryan.

"Whetstone, cigarette lighter and a collapsible fishing rod and flies." She smiled delighted. "I haven't fished since I was a girl!"

"Looks like we won't starve," Ryan commented.

Claudia looked around them. She realised that it was getting quite dark. The sparkling light of the anomalies was deceptive. "We need to find a place to camp," she said. "Nick, what do you think the chances are of something nasty coming through one of these anomalies?"

Nick looked at the shining lights. "High, I should think."

"We need to find somewhere defensible to camp then."

 **Now:**

"Where do you think Claudia goes?" Stephen asked. He was huddled under several blankets in the tiny room he and Ryan called their own. Darkness had set in some hours ago but they hadn't yet mastered the art of going to bed with the sun. The temptation was to lie wrapped in blankets and talk, or attempt to make things by the flickering light of home-made oil lamps.

"I don't think," Ryan said.

"You must be curious? She goes out every month. Doesn't say where she's been. Why don't you follow her?"

Ryan looked at him with a resigned expression. "Sometimes you just have to trust people, especially COs."

"She's not your CO though."

Ryan just grimaced slightly. Stephen recognised that expression now, it meant `don't go there'. Ryan didn't want to pick this apart. Claudia was his CO, as far as he was concerned, that was the end of the story.

"She goes to meet Helen, you know." Stephen tried a different tack. "She must do. Why does she go?"

"There's a value in talking to the enemy." Ryan was infuriatingly calm.

"Nick will go ballistic when he finds out."

"That's between Nick and Claudia," said Ryan firmly.

"Nick has a right to know," Stephen said, but his voice sounded weak and whining.

 **Earlier:**

They settled on a rough cave in a cliff face just as the night threatened to get really dark. At Claudia's insistence they had cut wood in the forest with the small hatchet and bound it up in Stephen's rope. This let them build a fire at the cave entrance.

"I'm not sure I'd call this cosy," Claudia muttered as she chewed disconsolately on an energy bar. "And we're going to have to organise watches."

"I don't know," said Nick. "Body heat." He moved closer to Claudia and she was surprised by the sudden intimacy, as she had often been surprised in the moments when Nick had made a move.

"Yes, body heat." She didn't resist his attention.

"There's something out there," said Stephen quietly, staring intently into the darkness beyond the cave mouth.

"Ryan, how can we best defend this area?" Claudia asked.

"That depends. The entrance is quite wide, even with four guns we can't cover it properly if there's a big pack of somethings."

"Nick, fire? Will that keep animals away?"

"Probably," Nick stood up and assessed the cave. "We don't have so much wood though. Not enough to keep a big fire going all night."

"Tell me about packs," Claudia's mind was racing. "Can we pick off a leader? Frighten them away?"

"That could work," said Stephen.

"It's our best bet," decided Claudia. "Keep the fire central to the cave mouth and as bright as possible for as long as possible. Pick off any stragglers that come round the edge. Try to hit the pack leader."

"We don't have that much ammunition," warned Ryan.

"We use it if we have to. Tomorrow we'll work on building some kind of defence across the cave mouth. For now let's concentrate on survival."

It was then that the first beast leaped into the cave. Claudia recognised it as a raptor, even as Ryan's gun cracked and the animal collapsed to the floor, a bullet through its brain.

"Will they turn on it, if we throw it out?" Claudia asked.

"Might do." Stephen nodded to Ryan and together the two men lifted the carcass and flung it over the fire and into the night beyond.

Claudia was startled by a hand on her shoulder. "You're turning into quite the major general," Nick whispered in her ear.

She pulled back, startled at the thought.

"Don't worry, I'm not put out. It reminds me of someone, of another you, really."

"And that's good?"

She felt the ghost of his hand cupping her face. "Yes, that's good."

 **Now:**

Claudia and Nick sat close together, in companionable silence, before the fire.

"Ach, well," said Nick after a while. "We should put out the lanterns and go to bed. No point wasting oil. I'm glad the solstice is near though. We can do more in the light and it will be good to have the days getting longer again."

He stood up and stretched. Claudia watched him move towards the lanterns that hung on hooks from the rafters. Claudia was seized by a sudden fear and an image of Helen's hooded form, crouched beneath the trees saying, "Beware the dark."

"No," she said putting out a hand. "Leave them on for tonight."

"We need to conserve the fuel."

At that moment a scratching sound came from above them, as if claws were tapping, running across the roof.

"What was that?" Claudia asked.

They stood still, listening, as the rat-tat-tat sounded again. Then there was a shuffle and a thump. Claudia realised she had gripped hold of Nick's arm.

Suddenly, the door that separated the main area from Stephen and Ryan's room opened.

"Sounds like some kind of animal," said Ryan.

Ryan picked up his rifle. It was a musket from the English Civil War. Claudia was constantly terrified it would back-fire, but Ryan tended it carefully and, so far, it had remained safe.

Nick was already shrugging on his coat. "Are you going outside?"

Ryan nodded. "I want to get a look at it, at least. Find out what we're dealing with."

"Take Stephen," said Claudia, glancing anxiously at Nick, in case he objected. "He can take the other gun. He's as likely to identify it as you," she said by way of explanation. "And he's a better shot."

Nick nodded curtly, halfway to a shrug.

* * *

Helen watched the figures as they emerged from the door of the house in a blaze of light that hurt her eyes, forcing her to blink in the glare. She bared her teeth in the dark and dug her claws into the wooden shingles of the roof. She was overwhelmed by the sensation of food. The rich smell of living meat assailed her nostrils.

With an effort, she hauled her senses back from the wolf and blinked as her viewpoint re-established itself from where she stood at the corner of the building.

She focused on the unmistakable form of Nick who was moving away from the small group in the doorway. She saw Stephen glance his way and Nick's oh-so-familiar gesture for quiet. She'd seen him use it a hundred times as he observed animals in the wild.

He moved away from the others into the darkness, as if drawn to her. Drawn by the smell of bonding, the smell of a mate who was waiting. She could almost feel the blood pounding through his veins. Instinct triumphed. Helen leaped.

There was the crack of a rifle shot and a sharp cry from Claudia. "No! Don't shoot! It's Helen."

Nick had one hand held at her throat. His eyes were wide with horror as he stared at her face.

She snarled, anxious to reach the meat, baring her teeth.

"Oh Fuck! What's happened to her?" That was the voice of Captain Ryan.

The lights were coming closer, blinding her with their brightness. Her brethren, the wolves, howled in the far hills and she unleashed them. She needed her help in this attack.

"No, back! Back!" It was Claudia once again, swinging brightness that hurt and burned. It pushed into her face, burned her eyes, driving her away.

She retreated, her mind calling to the pack swarming across the snows.

* * *

"She's lost it! She's totally mad!" Nick was already starting after Helen.

Claudia hung onto his arm, keeping him back. "No! We need to stay in the light."

"She's certainly not herself," said Ryan calmly.

Claudia thought of Helen's jet black eyes as she had fought with Nick. The way her lips had drawn back to reveal sharp pointed teeth.

Nick face hardened, like a thin veneer of stone over desperate pain. "We have to destroy her."

Claudia stared at him in horror, trying to understand how he could so suddenly turn against Helen, when he had fought for her so long. He looked shocked and wounded. Claudia's mind raced over Helen's strange appearance and her encounter earlier.

"Maybe she's not completely lost. We have to find another way."

"Are you mad?" asked Nick.

"No." Claudia looked at him, watching the mixed emotions chase across his face. Nick was so open sometimes. "You can't abandon her. None of us can."

"Why not?" he said exasperated. "She'd abandon us like a shot if we were liabilities. You've said so yourself. She has in some cases." He eyed Stephen.

"Yes, she's abandoned us and manipulated us, and probably wouldn't lift a finger to help us if our positions were reversed," Stephen spoke up suddenly and unexpectedly. "All the same, are you going to abandon her?"

She is your wife. His thought hung unspoken on the air.

"What are we going to do?" Ryan spoke up suddenly, as if the decision had already been made.

"I think she's fighting for control. I think she tried to warn me earlier," began Claudia.

"When earlier?" demanded Nick.

"Earlier, earlier, when I went to meet her."

Nick's mouth opened.

"Just don't start, Nick," Claudia interrupted. "I went to meet her. I go to meet her the day before each full moon. It's useful. We need her, just not on her terms."

The movement up on the roof was sudden. Claudia wasn't sure if she saw it first or heard the report of Ryan's musket firing. She'd forgotten about the creature they had heard. A large brindled dire wolf fell to the ground at their feet.

"That's what was on the roof," said Ryan grimly.

"Incoming!" shouted Stephen.

Claudia was aware they had fired both their bullets. Stephen and Ryan would need time to reload. Dark shapes were visible, swarming across the snow.

Claudia was already stumbling back towards the door of the cabin as the creatures streamed out of the darkness, long sleek wolf shapes, powerful and efficient. A great, muscled leader at the front of the pack. Claudia gasped as she glanced into its eyes which were as blank and black as Helen's had been.

Its lips drew back into a snarl and it jumped.

There was a final shot. Claudia realised Nick was holding one of Ryan's handguns. He must have picked it up as they left the cabin. They rarely used them, conserving the ammo for times when a pack attacked.

Then they were all inside the cabin. Nick dropped the wooden bar across the door while Ryan shuttered the windows.

"I'm not sure that's necessary." Claudia glanced around the room. The lanterns and the fire flooded it with light. "I don't think it likes the light. When I met Helen she had her face covered with a hood. I think that was so she could hide from the sun, not so that I wouldn't see her eyes."

"Wait!" Nick's voice was harsh and abrupt.

Claudia watched him gather his thoughts for a moment, his hands waving. "Firstly, what were you doing meeting Helen?"

"I..." Claudia began.

But Nick ploughed on over her, "And what do you mean by _it_? and do you have any sensible reason for supposing it doesn't like light beyond the fact that Helen wore a hood.?"

Claudia was used to arguing with Nick. Half his objections were just thoughts flashing through his mind. "I need to meet with Helen. She knows this environment better than we do."

"That's not what you said when she offered to show us the way home."

"I said she wasn't going to show us home! Not that she didn't know how."

"Oh, so _we're_ not allowed to associate with Helen, but you are. What makes you so different?"

"I never loved her!" It came out more abruptly than she had intended and she saw the shock in Nick's expression.

"Neither did Ryan," he said darkly.

"I'm not interested in meeting Helen," interrupted Ryan. "Keep me out of this."

"Someone has to meet with her. Someone who's not going to let their judgement be clouded by personal issues."

"You don't think the fact we're sleeping together makes it a little bit personal?" demanded Nick. "You don't maybe think that entitles me to know what you are doing, and in particular that you are meeting with my ex-wife?"

"What would you have done if I had told you?" Claudia threw back. "Forbidden me to go? Demanded to come with me? Called my judgement into question?"

"Like you're calling mine into question! I had a right to know."

"Not if you're going to behave like this, you hadn't!" Claudia knew she was handling this badly. There were ways to talk to an employee who had been kept in the dark that didn't involve shouting at them.

That said, the manual also had plenty to say about not getting romantically involved with employees for precisely that reason.

"Tell us about Helen. What's happened to her?" interrupted Stephen.

" _It_ has got hold of her, clearly." The sarcasm dripped from Nick's voice.

"Well something has happened to her," Claudia shot back. "You saw her eyes and her teeth. Do you have a scientific explanation for that?"

"There is always a scientific explanation."

"Right now I'm telling you _it_ has got hold of her and _it_ doesn't like light and Helen is fighting _it_. You can figure out the science later."

"You're just jealous."

Those words again.

The temptation to step up and slap him was incredibly strong and her mind scrabbled in outrage. Why would I be trying to help her if I was jealous? If I was jealous what would that have to do with anything anyway? Look at you playing the big man with all the women fighting over you?

Instead, white hot with anger, Claudia turned on her heels. Almost without thought she grabbed Ryan's heavy military torch. They used it sparingly and it still worked. Above it were Stephen's handcuffs. They had hung them on display on the wall as a kind of joke. Then she left the cabin, letting the door bang shut behind her.

 **Earlier:**

"You're being irrational!" Nick said. Somehow he managed to sound angry even though he was keeping his voice quiet.

"No," said Claudia, equally firmly, " _you_ are being irrational."

Nick gestured to Helen where she lounged by the fireplace. A faint smile curled her lips. She was enjoying the argument. "I may not like it, but she can take us home," he said.

"No strings attached." Helen's smile was that of a predator. It didn't invite trust.

"I don't know..." said Stephen slowly.

"Oh, Stephen." Helen pouted and stretched languidly, like a cat. "Do you want to stay here?"

Claudia became acutely aware of the bare comfort of the cabin. Their inexperience in manual labour was betrayed everywhere in the roughness of their handiwork.

"How do we know we can trust you?" Claudia demanded of Helen.

Helen barely acknowledged her presence. Her eyes were fixed on Nick. "What other option do you have? Come with me."

"No!" said Claudia hearing, with surprise, the tone of finality in her voice. She forced herself to turn her back on Helen and face her friends. "Here, at anomaly junction, we will eventually find our own way back. If Helen abandons us in some other location we could be trapped for ever."

"We're stalled here!" said Nick fiercely. "I have no equipment, no reference books, no nothing. Don't you want to know what's happened to us? Don't you see we can't afford to wait? Helen just wants to get some leverage with Lester and the government. It's to her advantage to get us home."

Claudia looked at his passionate face and was almost overwhelmed by her fondness for him. She understood he was frustrated by the waiting, by the daily grind of homesteading and consumed by the need to get back to some kind of learned civilisation, but she was not going to let her men follow Helen blindly into the anomalies.

"She's not interested in our leverage with Lester or the government," Claudia said. "She has her own plan. She always has and she always will. We are not going with her."

"You're just jealous."

Claudia had no come back for that. It felt like a blow that Nick had even suggested it and her previous fondness melted away suddenly into a cold misery.

"I agree with Claudia." Ryan spoke for the first time. Claudia felt him step forward to stand at her shoulder. The rush of gratitude for his support surprised her.

Claudia glanced instinctively at Stephen. Would he side with Ryan, his lover, or would he side with Nick, with all the unspoken mess of Helen that lay between the two of them? They seemed to be groping their way to reconciliation but it was happening away from Claudia and she didn't truly know where Stephen's loyalties would lie in a moment like this.

Stephen looked at her steadily for a moment and then she saw his gaze jump anxiously between Nick, Helen and Ryan. Then he shrugged and turned his back on the argument.

Helen obviously sensed that the matter was decided. "Well, have it your way," she said.

She sounded unconcerned but Claudia felt the bitter warmth of triumph. She reached out to put a hand on Nick's arm, but he shrugged it off and turned away.

 **Now:**

Nick was halfway to the door when he realised Ryan had stepped in his way, barring his route into the snow.

"Out of my way," he demanded angrily.

"Claudia has a plan."

"She's out there on her own, with Helen and whatever it is."

"Well maybe you should have discussed the situation with her rationally then, rather than flying off into a temper." Ryan looked disturbingly calm. Nick remembered him like that, backing up Lester.

"She was angry, irrational..."

"Someone was certainly angry and irrational," agreed Ryan calmly.

"She took a light and the handcuffs, Nick. I think she had a plan." It was Stephen, possibly the first time he had challenged Nick since they got here. Even so, he looked doubtful and hesitant.

"We can't just let her do this alone!"

"I think you have to decide if you trust her or not," said Stephen slowly. "Do you?"

 **Earlier:**

Claudia gaped in surprise at Ryan. "What are we going to do with a hanging basket?" she asked and boggled at the overflowing and very flowery concoction he was holding.

"It'll make the place look more homely." He gestured at the newly-completed log cabin behind her. "Finish it off properly."

"Where did you find it?"

"Haven't a clue, but it looked Victorian at a guess. Lots of big skirts."

Claudia felt herself smiling at the twinkle in Ryan's eye. "You stole it."

He shrugged. "Big fancy house, they didn't need it. Besides we've stolen pretty much everything else we needed to build this place."

"That was different," she protested weakly but knew she was smiling too much and they _had_ raided time for an inordinate number of necessities, working from big lists Claudia worked out and all the time searching for the elusive anomaly that would take them back to the 21st century.

"Well, we've got it now. Too risky to take it back."

"How will we hang it up?" Claudia looked around. They'd built a kind of veranda at the front of the cabin. Anomaly junction had proved very hot in the summer sun and they'd wanted the shade.

"I also acquired a hook and a ring." Ryan triumphantly fished the items from his pocket. "Hold the basket and I'll fetch a hammer. We can hang it from the front of the veranda."

Claudia looked at the basket of ridiculous flowers and smiled to herself. The log cabin was distinctly bare and functional but with the basket hanging up it would begin to feel like a home.

 **Now:**

Claudia wasn't sure when the plan had formed in her head. But she had known what she was going to do by the time she had reached the door and seen the torch and the handcuffs.

She switched on the torch and stood shivering slightly in the biting wind. Helen stood in front of her, at the centre of a semi-circle of wolves. The darkness seemed thick around them and Claudia could almost see it retreat in the light of her torch.

Claudia advanced slightly, just to the edge of the veranda. That meant she stood next to the thick supports and the iron ring Ryan had put up for the long-dead hanging basket.

"Coming out to parley?" asked Helen. It sounded very like her. The tone of amused teasing was spot on.

"Who would I be talking to?" asked Claudia, watching her carefully, keeping the torch playing across the snowy ground between them.

Helen stepped forward, hips swaying, "Who would you like to be talking to?"

"I'd like to talk to Helen please, if that's possible."

"I'm right here," Helen took a step closer. Claudia could almost see the smile curling around the sides of her mouth. She allowed the torch to retreat slightly, letting Helen get that little bit closer.

"What has happened?" she asked.

"Oh, lots of things? Wouldn't you like to find out what?" The voice was teasing and tempting.

"Good things?" asked Claudia, allowing Helen a step closer.

"Oh, very good things, wonderful things."

Claudia dropped the beam of the torch entirely so she stood in a small pool of light. Helen stepped closer still, so their faces almost touched.

"Wonderful in what way?" Claudia asked, allowing her arms to reach out to Helen, as if to steady herself or embrace the other woman.

Helen smiled, showing the tips of her sharp teeth as she did so. "Let me show you."

Helen lunged forwards but Claudia was ready for her. One end of the handcuffs went around Helen's upraised wrist, the other clicked shut around the iron ring. Then Claudia flashed the torch right up into Helen's eyes, causing the other woman to back away snarling, brought up short by the handcuff.

"My, what big teeth you have, Helen," said Claudia.

She didn't remain to see what followed. Claudia retreated back into the cabin, aware of the sounds of wolves howling behind her.

"Claudia!" She hardly saw Nick before arms enveloped her and she felt herself held tightly in a hug. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." She looked up into his anxious face. "Honestly I'm fine. I hope Helen will be too."

His forehead rested against hers. "I'm glad. It's more than Helen would have done for you."

Claudia thought back to the far past, to her blind terror and winged predators swarming in the dark. She wasn't so sure, but she saw no reason to say that now. "I'm fine," she repeated, anxious to reassure him.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't..." Nick began.

Claudia pressed a finger against his lips. What was there more he could say. I'm sorry was more than enough. "It's okay," she whispered. "It's difficult for all of us."

"Right! Alcohol!" announced Ryan.

Nick actually groaned. "Must we?"

"It's the solstice and it looks like we'll be up all night, so yes. We must."

Ryan grabbed the tin cups off the shelf and approached the wooden barrel in the corner with the air of a man who meant business.

"Has anyone tried this batch yet?" Claudia asked cautiously. The previous batch of homebrew had had a distinctly acidic flavour.

"Now is clearly the time!" Ryan handed around the tin cups.

Claudia sipped hers cautiously and grimaced. The most that could be said for it was that it was better than the previous attempt. Stephen glared at his balefully, shot a loving glance in Ryan's direction and then downed it in one.

Nick eyed his thoughtfully for a moment and then handed it back to Ryan. "If I'm being difficult this evening, I may as well continue to be so," he said cheerfully. "I propose an alternative."

"What?" asked Stephen.

Nick turned and disappeared into the room he shared with Claudia. He returned bearing a glass bottle which said `Tallisker' on the side. "I had this in my pack when I turned up here. I've been saving it for a suitable occasion."

"Now that's more like it," said Ryan with approval, tipping his own beer and Nick's onto the fire.

Nick solemnly poured the drinks. "Slainte!" he said as they clicked their cups together.

Stephen threw another log on the fire and the light blazed out.

"I brought in evergreen!" said Claudia, remembering suddenly. "So we could decorate."

Nick laughed. "Let's get to it then. We'll be seeing the solstice through, I think."

The lamps shone out against the long darkness and the fir and laurel decorated the walls. Stephen, Nick, Ryan and Claudia sat around the fire drinking whisky and talking of the future.

 **Earlier:**

Helen remembered the raptor. She remembered its jaws closing onto her flesh and the surprised look on Daniel Quinn's face.

Anomaly junction was an old friend of hers but now she felt dislocated. She could not account for her own presence in this place. Some way away she could see four figures, all of them familiar. She watched as they gathered up their packs and headed towards the sheer cliffs that surrounded the valley.

She wouldn't go to them, not just yet. She needed to find out what was going on and she needed them desperate. Eager enough for her help that they would agree without question, and follow her without reservation.

In fact, thinking about things, Helen was sure she could turn this situation to her advantage. There were many unknowns but unknowns were a challenge and in this environment, away from civilisation, and government and soldiers, she would have the upper hand.

 **Now:**

As the first weak light of dawn crept across the ground, Helen shrank back from the pale light. The wolves had already left her, seeking solace in the darkness of the trees. Helen hissed and pulled at the handcuffs but she couldn't escape. Then, as the pale morning light washed over her, the darkness fled.

It wasn't so much waking up but it was more like a cleansing, a feeling of clarity and well-being in her mind. She had failed and had needed the assistance of Claudia who had turned out to contain a core of steel Helen had never bargained for. Still she had used the resources available and she had survived.

Helen tossed her head and stood tall and proud beneath the great unconquered sun.


End file.
